Foreign

Brazil’s arts and culture are celebrated at embassy

Brazilian Ambassador Luis Fernando Serra, fourth from right, and other ambassadors celebrate the opening Thursday of Brazil Hall, a venue at the Brazilian Embassy in central Seoul dedicated to Brazilian arts and culture. [PARK SANG-MOON]

The Brazilian Embassy in Seoul opened a new space dedicated to Brazilian arts and culture on Thursday.

“Welcome to the Brazil Hall, the Brazilian Embassy’s cultural venue that we are proudly inaugurating today,” said Brazilian Ambassador to Korea Luis Fernando Serra, addressing a packed crowd of diplomats, artists and businesspeople at the hall. “The opening of this hall on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Brazil and Korea aims to celebrate the paramount importance we give to Korea, our fifth-largest trade partner in the world.

“We have chosen for the inauguration of the Brazil Hall a selection of photographs of the mesmerizing Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, an iconic event in a city that is the postcard of Brazil,” he said. “Every February, 40,000 performers representing their neighborhoods parade the 700 meters [0.43 miles] of the sambadrome in a competition for the chance to become the champion of Carnival.”

The hall, located on the first floor of the embassy in the creative neighborhood of Samcheong-dong, central Seoul, is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Wednesday to Sunday.

The embassy celebrated the inauguration with the works of photographer Omar Montenegro, a Brazilian artist based in Singapore.

“I go back to Brazil every year for the Carnival, which people call the greatest party on earth,” Montenegro said. “The photographs you see are a selection of those taken during the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro during the last 10 years. I would like to dedicate the exhibition to the subjects of these photographs.”